The Funeral
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: The Doctor attends the Brigadiers funeral. My tribute to Nicholas Courtney's demise.


**Disclaimer - I don't own Doctor Who. **

**Author's note, I couldn't believe it when I read the news of Nicolas Courtney's death. The Brigadier seemed….immortal, he was an iconic character next to the Doctor, Sarah Jane and others. **

**I hope that he is in peace. **

**This is the best I can do as a tribute. I hope it's a good one.**

**The Funeral.**

The Doctor watched as the body was carried over on the shoulders of UNIT soldiers, he'd waited for this moment for hundreds of years. He'd known the date for this event for years. But he'd always held back from actually attending for it would make it more real for him.

It would be too much of a paradox if he'd actually ran into the man after the funeral.

He'd sat at the back, listening as people - those who'd served with him and those that were simply making a tribute as a founder of UNIT, some of his comrades made witty oneliners, saying what a slave driver the man had been, but a kind, fair leader he was.

How he cared for each and every member of his soldiers. The Doctor, himself, had made a tribute.

He had stood up and said, " I first met him in the London Underground, I was running through the tunnels when I ran into a colonel. He may not have trusted me then, but as time went on, we grew to rely and trust one another. When I was…imprisoned as the scientific advisor to UNIT, he treated me like a colleague, he helped me become comfortable in an actual job.

" I've travelled for a long time, in that time I've met and befriended many people. He was the one I've met and interacted with for years, the one I could always rely on the most. He had a wry sense of humour, a very hands on approach when he wasn't stuck behind a desk. He didn't take things lightly, he always thought things through as carefully as the situation allowed. We clashed, many times, sometimes ending in compromises. He wouldn't surrender his principles nor would I."

" As the years passed, we grew apart. Occasionally, we would run into each other and talk about old times, as we did, I couldn't help but feel proud. This soldier started out as a trigger happy colonel, into a man tempered by wisdom."

" As Mr, Benton pointed out," the Doctor indicated the older man, in appearance, " he was the best. He thought of everyone under his command. I remember, Liz Shaw had left UNIT to go back to Cambridge. I was lonely, little irritable, but then I met Jo Jones, Grant, as she was known then.

" She destroyed an experiment I'd been running and I was all set to make him send her away. But I couldn't. Jo was inexperienced then, young and brash. It wasn't until much later, I realised he wasn't trying to replace Liz, he was simply giving me a new friend. I was eternally grateful for that. For those two girls, I adored them equally. I met them because of him.

The Doctor looked down at the bible on the podium, he took a deep breath to steady himself, " I will miss you, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart."

The Doctor later watched as they buried the Brigadier in the cemetery. It was on the site of the Old priory, the original UNIT headquarters. Now, it was a memorial site. A museum.

The Doctor was angry about that, the people he'd worked with for years deserved much better than being gawped at by future generations of UNIT soldiers.

But he was delighted that the Brigadier would be remembered by UNIT.

As they buried the Brigadier, the Doctor remembered the times he spent with the man. Alistair had always been a modest man, he was always delighted to serve and do his duty in any way necessary.

But in the end, what had that duty brought the Brigadier ?

The Doctor shook that thought out his mind, locking it down. The Brigadier wouldn't have appreciated it, he would have appreciated the idea of being buried on the site of his original UNIT headquarters, as the homemade last hope for mankind.

He only hoped the Brigadier was happy in his new paradise. The Doctor didn't believe in any supreme god, although he'd encountered entities like the Guardians - Black and White, the Eternals and others. But the Time lord didn't sneer in disbelief at the beliefs of the rest of the universe.


End file.
